About a month ago my 8 year old female Brittany somehow injured her back. Diagnosis is a bulged disc. She is on pain relievers and an anti-inflammatory plus being crated for 4-6 weeks except to potty. It's been about 2 1/2 weeks since we started the meds and rest and she is feeling a lot better but still not totally solid on her back legs. Favors her right leg more. I was just wondering if anyone else has gone through this and if the dog made a complete recover?

She is a hard charging hunting and trial dog so it's tough to see her kept down like this. Obviously my hunting season this year is in the toilet. Just hoping she can recover from this.

Rehab involves teaching tricks that test balance and build core muscle strength, helping a dog to improve function and re-train movements that may be weak or altered from damaged neuro connection. It's very similar to people and varies based on disease and level of recovery. They can be as simple as walking cavaletti poles or as complex as using an underwater treadmill. They are getting popular and most medium metropolitan areas have them. I have two within 2 hours here in eastern Iowa.

She's moving around quite well when I let her out. If you saw her in my yard you wouldn't think anything was wrong. I'm hoping that within 2-4 weeks we can start doing some walks and light running. But I'm going to take it very slow. I'm leaving for our winter home in Arizona right after Thanksgiving so she won't have snow to deal with.

Took Elle in to the local vet yesterday and had x-rays taken of her back just to see if there was anything abnormal before having a MRI done. X-rays didn't show a thing. Discs and spacing looked all quite normal. Maybe some slight narrowing between the last couple of discs. My vet still thinks her discomfort might be coming from her right hip but x-rays weren't conclusive. So today I scheduled appointments at the University of Minnesota. She sees the neurologist next Wednesday afternoon and has a MRI scheduled for Thursday morning. There is something wrong with this dog and I'm hoping that after next week we will have a definitive answer. I'll let you know how it goes.

Well, here's the results of the MRI that was done today. Not good news.

MRI of her spine found a contrast-enhancing mass associated with the epaxial muscles on the right sideextending from L2-L6. There is involvement of the L3 and L4 vertebrae. Ultrasound-guided aspirates of themass were performed after MRI imaging.Cytology results pending.